The Lady Trojans have no seniors on the roster, but the boys celebrated the senior achievements of their seven seniors.

Sturgis' girl's team was decked out in pink attire, helping raise awareness for cancer research in Friday's game.

Harper Creek 41, Sturgis 18 (girls)

The Lady Trojans played very well defensively in three quarters Friday night, but fell to the visiting No. 10 Lady Beavers 41-18.

Sturgis wasn't able to score in the opening eight minutes, but Harper only held a 6-0 lead.

"Defensively to beat Harper Creek you have to press them and their only loss was to St. Joe, who is the best pressing team in our conference," Sturgis coach Brian Beebe said. "We forced some mistakes, but weren't able to do enough with those mistakes."

Sturgis forced 16 turnovers on the evening. With the win, Harper Creek clinches at least a share of the SMAC East title.

Harper's big quarter came in the second, when they scored 18 points. The Lady Beavers led 24-2 at halftime.

Courtney Lovelace connected on a jumper for the Lady Trojans 10:00 into the game, giving Sturgis its only points of the first two quarters.

Jozlin Johnson scored nine points in the first half, adding three assists to lead Harper to their lead at the break.

Sturgis scored four third quarter points and held Harper to only nine, but still trailed 33-6 heading into the final eight minutes.

Morgan Pueschel, Rachel Anderson and Marissa Parker each split a pair at the line, but a deuce from Karlee Hancock pushed Harper's lead to 38-9.

Beebe's team wanted to spread the floor in the game and was able to do so, but wasn't able to capitalize until late in the game.

"In that fourth quarter we started to see our offense work," Beebe said. "We have three games next week so it was good to see us have a great fourth quarter. It's good to see us play well and have success in that final quarter."

Down 38-9, Sturgis connected for nine straight points, getting buckets from Anderson, Pueschel and Kayla Nichols. However, it wasn't enough for Sturgis.

The Lady Trojans got good minutes off the bench from Maddie Mercer and Taya Anding in the contest.

"This was Mercer's first varsity experience, and she proved tonight you don't have to score to be important," Beebe said. "She went full speed the whole time, I'm happy with her effort tonight."

Anderson led Sturgis with seven while Parker added four and Pueschel chipped in three. Both Nichols and Lovelace scored four points.

Sturgis 55, Harper Creek 43 (boys)

Page 2 of 3 - A big defensive effort from the Sturgis boy's team propelled them to a 55-43 win over Harper Creek on Friday. It was senior night for the Trojans, who came in with a focused effort after falling to the Beavers in Battle Creek last month.

"It was nice to play a great game on senior night," senior Jalen Cox said. "I think it was a relief that we had a successful senior night, especially with Harper Creek coming in."

Fellow senior and point guard Tyler Bennett echoed the thoughts from Cox after the game.

"This was a big deal, even with all the distractions," Bennett said. "Harper is a rival and this was the last Friday night home game for us, so to win this game was big for us."

Sturgis wanted to attack Harper on the inside, trying not to settle for 3-pointers and perimeter shots.

Head coach Keith Kurowski said he was pleased with his team's efforts Friday.

"I want the ball in the highest scoring position possible and we want to get the ball in the post and I'd be happy if we took 80 percent of our shots from there," he said. "I think the boys have done a great job of making that extra pass and getting a higher percentage shot."

Harper wasn't phased by it being senior night in Sturgis, the Beavers came out and took an 8-0 lead early. The Trojans' first bucket came at the 2:22 mark by senior Patrick Haas. Sturgis' next four points came at the foul line as Cox connected on all four of his free throws in the quarter.

Then, in the second, Sturgis fell behind by eight points as Harper raced out with Josh Bass connected on a layup with two free throws from Jake Andrews as well. They led 14-6, but the layup from Bass at the 6:06 mark of the second quarter would be the final points of the half for Harper.

Sturgis scored the final 11 points with Jack Scheske hitting two jumpers and Cox connecting for five points. Cox was 6-of-6 from the stripe in the first half.

The Trojans, up 17-14 at the break, certainly felt good, especially shooting just 22 percent. To top that off, leading scorer Chance Stewart was held scoreless in the opening 16 minutes.

"If you would have told me we'd shoot 22 percent in the first half and still be up, I'd have thought it was April Fool's," Kurowski said. "We played as poorly in the first half as we have in a long, long time. What kept us in the game was our tough man-to-man defense."

The third quarter went back and forth with each team getting shots on the interior.

Stewart scored seven third quarter points while Bennett and Cox each got offensive put-backs. Sturgis rebounded the ball very well on the night, out-rebounding the Beavers 41-24.

Page 3 of 3 - And the offense came with it — Sturgis out-scored Harper 38-29 in the final two quarters.

"We wanted to attack tonight and I thought we attacked very well," Cox said. "Coach told us to keep attacking until the end of the game."

Harper closed to without eight a couple times, but Sturgis flexed its muscles, especially at the line.

Sturgis finished 14-of-17 from the stripe.

"We've always been a good free-throw shooting team in practice and it was good to shoot well from there tonight," Bennett said. "I thought we handled their pressure well and we didnt compound mistakes. We were able to slow it down and I think that helped us tonight."

Cox led all scorers with 19 points, adding eight rebounds while Stewart had 14 points and 19 rebounds. Haas finished with 10 points, five rebounds and three assists. Scheske connected for six points, Bennett had four and Eduardo Portillo added two.

Bass, who hurt Sturgis for 19 in the previous game, scored his fifth-lowest point total with only 10 Friday.

"It was nice to hold him to a very minimal offensive output," Kurowski said.

Kurowski added he was proud of his seniors.

"I told them before the game how proud I was of them, of the whole team," he said. "All our guys have great dedication and commitment and we have great character."

Sturgis hosts Stevensville-Lakeshore on Tuesday.

To check out video action of Friday's game, browse over to www.sturgisjournal.com